Ortiz gets the deal he was seeking

David Ortiz’s two-year contract was officially announced by the Red Sox on Monday. It’s worth a base amount of $26 million, with incentives that could push it up to $30 million.

TIM BRITTON

BOSTON — David Ortiz got what he wanted.

Ortiz’s two-year contract was officially announced by the Red Sox on Monday. It’s worth a base amount of $26 million, with incentives that could push the deal’s total value to $30 million.

There was never much doubt Ortiz would be back with Boston in 2013. The question entering this offseason was whether Ortiz would finally land the multi-year deal he’s been pining for the last several years.

General manager Ben Cherington made it clear to the longest-tenured Red Sox that he was a top priority this winter, even back during the regular season.

“Ben talked through the season to me and a couple of my teammates. He let us know he wants to build this organization around us and that’s something I told Ben straight up — I’m up to the challenge,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz acknowledged that the negotiations were smooth this winter, a far cry from the protracted back-and-forth offseason last year that ended only minutes before a potential arbitration hearing.

The biggest factor behind that simplicity was Cherington’s willingness to give Ortiz a second year on the deal. There were several reasons the Red Sox met that particular demand this time around.

For one, the composition of the roster is, obviously, drastically different than it was a year ago. The long-term commitments to Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett are the Dodgers’ problem now, and Boston had both the financial wherewithal and the middle-of-the-order needs to facilitate a longer-term deal.

Second, Ortiz more or less backed up his 2011 season with an outstanding 2012 — prior to his Achilles injury in July. The designated hitter was leading the league in OPS when he went down, and he hit .318 with a .415 on-base percentage and 23 home runs in his 90 games last season. His substandard 2009 season is a distant memory by now.

Finally, Cherington and the Red Sox feel that Ortiz remains a critical building block, both for the present and the future. After another season of turmoil in the clubhouse and underperformance on the field, Ortiz is, in the front office’s eyes, the kind of player Boston needs on and off the field — someone who can set a strong example in the clubhouse and who embraces the unique challenges of playing in this market.

“David was a true leader on the team, helping all sorts of different people in that clubhouse — players, staff — get through some difficult times,” Cherington said. “I know he was doing everything he could to make things better, and not worse, aside from what he does on the field. There are other guys like him on this team, but it’s a comfort going forward knowing we have players here that care and want to be here for the right reasons.”

This, then, is not simply a deal to reward past performance in Cherington’s eyes.

“We felt like the right thing to do in this case was to get to a second year and make it work for David, make it work for us,” the GM said. “I think there’s some real benefit in committing to a two-year deal in this case, because we are trying to build something and we want David to be a part of it, and we don’t need to have that conversation at the end of next year.”

Of course, there are concerns with giving a soon to be 37-year-old (on Nov. 18) a lucrative two-year contract, especially one who missed all but one game in the season’s last two-and-a-half months. (Indeed, WEEI.com reported the incentives in Ortiz’s 2014 salary are tied directly to the health of his Achilles.) Such worries were alleviated in Boston’s mind by its knowledge of Ortiz’s work ethic.

“Our benefit is that we know David so well,” Cherington said. “We know how hard he’s going to work to put himself in the best position to play and be healthy. And since we’ve worked with him so much, we know what happened with the Achilles this year. We feel that in working with David to identify some things to do can proactively help him. It’s not a concern moving forward any more than it would be with any player.”

Ortiz thinks he has plenty left in the tank.

“First of all, I’m from the Dominican. I might show up and be 30 next year,” he joked. “There’s one thing I’m going to make clear right here: I get prepared to play. I like to see the pain in the opposition. I like to win. I’m the kind of guy that, the season is never over for me. I’m still working, still putting myself together right now, when everybody’s vacationing.”

Cherington mentioned his hope that Ortiz retire as a Red Sox, and there was at least the implication that this might be the last major-league contract the designated hitter will ever sign. Ortiz, for his part, reaffirmed his motivation and desire to justify Boston’s faith in him.

“There’s always something that you haven’t accomplished. That’s the way you stay hungry, wanting to do well, wanting to put up numbers,” he said. “I always feel like there’s something I’m missing.

“The one thing I always keep in mind, when I’m full swinging and the ball ain’t going nowhere, it’s time to go, right? We haven’t gotten there yet.”